1 Sep 2014

Reds boss Brendan Rodgers has immeasurably strengthened the club's full-back positions this summer, and the club is set for another boost as right-back Jon Flanagan has revealed that he is close to signing a new long-term deal with Liverpool.

Speaking to the Liverpool Echo this week, Flanagan - who is currently recovering from a knee injury - confirmed:

"There have been some talks and I should be signing a new contract soon.

"All I’ve ever wanted is to play for Liverpool and I want to stay here for as long as I possibly can.”

Flanagan put in some good performances last season, but he's going to face a formidable battle to regain his place in the team.

It's early days, but Javier Manquillo and Alberto Moreno look like promising acquisitions, and with the experienced Glen Johnson also in the squad, it's probable that Flanagan will be fourth-choice full-back on his return to full-fitness.

The 'important' 21-year old is unperturbed by the competition, though, and concedes that Liverpool are 'always going to sign top players'. He mused:

“Moreno and Manquillo play in my position but that will just make me work harder. Having good players around you pushes you on. Hopefully I’ll get back in the team. Things went well for me last season and I want to build on that.”

Flanagan seems to be popular amongst Liverpool fans, but I personally can't see what all the fuss is about. For me, he's a little overrated; a steady 'huff and puff' player with plenty of passion, but nothing exceptional to his game.

To be fair, though, Manquillo seems to very similar in that regard; he's a solid player, who doesn't seem to excel in anything specific, unlike, say, Moreno, who clearly has real attacking quality, as proven by his superb goal against Spurs on Sunday.

Still, I'll take Flanagan over Glen Johnson any day of the week, and with Manquillo, Moreno, and Flanagan in the squad, Johnson will (hopefully) struggle to play regularly this season.

Alternatively, under intense pressure for his place, it's also possible Johnson may improve and start to tighten up his game, so it's a win-win situation all-round.

With Johnson gone after this year and offloading Enrique for whatever we can get I think having a fullback with Flanagan's EPL experience, even at his young age, is something other clubs would envy. I don't think his ceiling is as high but there's always room at a club for players with his kind of passion and commitment.

Completely agree Flanno is solid nothing else. If we are to push on over the next few years and really challenge for trophies I can only see him being a back up player. If he becomes a first team regular I would suggest our ambitions would be a bit lower. Still anything that pushes Johnson further away from the first team and closer to the exit door is welcome!!!

To be honest and I know it's still early days but I can see these two Spanish lads being our starting full backs for quite a few years. Flanno, Enrique and Johnson are gonna have a job on getting into the team in front of these two.

You would have probably said the same about Finnan. You Dont need flash and flair from a fullback, just a solid player you can rely on and in that regard flanno and (from the outset) Manquillo are excellent for us.

Flanno and Manquillo are still very young and their respective games will develop significantly in the next 3 years. First and foremost they're both solid, steady and hungry. Glen Johnson has been none of those things for quite some time. For me he's our fifth choice fullback although Rodgers obviously doesn't fancy Enrique.I understand your point that Flanno is unlikely to have the kind of impact on a game that Moreno, who was hugely impressive I thought, will but with it being a British league, there are gonna be games that require Flanno's heart, courage and industry, especially in the cup games against lower league sides. Oldham away for example. Manquillo or Flanno? Flanno for me. He'll get enough games throughout this season to keep him happy. He is after all, living the dream. Flanno is also one of those players in the squad, that even if he isn't first choice, he'll definitely keep whoever is on their toes. He also knows what it means to play for the club and the fans love him because they see a young local lad playing his heart out for the club he loves. Good character to have around and very capable member of the squad

Dier's act of trying to "pull" or "slow Allen's momentum" with his hand, whilst in the box is also "acting dishonestly or unfairly to gain an advantage".

So, lets balance this up: Dier attempted to dishonestly gain an advantage, Allen felt the and went over.

Yes, Allen went over very easily, almost embarrassingly so, but he's reacting to the contact.

Don't forget that contact in the box IS a foul and that foul will lead to a goal scoring opportunity, so players week in and week out will quite rightly react to contact in the box, after all they want to win.

If there was NO contact then I'd agree whole-heartedly that Allen cheated.

The plain fact of the matter is that Allen felt the contact, went over and gave the ref a decision to make. It's essentially no different from Garcia wheeling away celebrating that ghost goal against Chelsea, he gave the ref a decision to make, was that cheating?

I don't think Allen can be called a cheat, soft yes, but not dishonest

Borini sounds like a great guy and i do feel a bit sorry for him but unfortunately he just Isn`t the player we all wated him to be, he would be better off going to Sunderland, i hope Liverpool don`t send him out once again on loan it would just be a waste of time and just another battle to see him leave next season, Sunderland if rumours are true have agreed a fee of £14m, which is the best offer we`re going to get ever for Borini,so its in everybodys best interest he leaves now for the very patient Gus Poyets Sunderland, and the same also goes for Assaidi, he needs to be sold not loaned out yet again, we should be greatfull if Mark hughes is still willing to sign him, and he should be thankful that he has a premiere league team interested in him, and grab this opportunity with both hands. I wish all the players and there familys who are leaving the very best of luck for the future. Just a quick word about yesterdays game, we looked like we are getting our mojo back from last season. Moreno, Balotelli, Manquillo, Can and Markovic all looked Impressive yesterday, I think we have found a few Gems amongst them, especially Moreno and Balotelli, and don`t forget we still have Lallana to come in yet, still early days but the more these players play together the better we will be, I can see these people who have written us off for a top 4 finish looking pretty stupid now, or was it just wishful thinking on these fools behalf, looks like number 19, could be closer than they think. Come on you mighty reds.

"He cried out in mock pain" is a massive assumption, where's your evidence? I'd say, and you have backed this up yourself, that the contact was not sufficient for him to have been caused enough pain to cry out, so by OUR reasoning he must of been highlighting the foul to ref.

This is a bit of a circular pointless argument on my part, but I'm using it to highlight the fact that you can't shoot down an opinion as an assumption purely because it's not the ASSUMPTION you have made

I dont think Flanno is overrated. I think people have consistently shown their liking of him based on the comparison of him and Johnson, nothing more nothing less. He seems to know how to stick to the basic stuff and avoid glaring mistakes such as misplaced passes (because he rarely goes forward into dangerous attacking positions) unlike Johnson who tries going forward and neglects his primary defensive duties and fails at them when he tries to carry out those defensive duties. Im sure he is not overrated, the one who is overrated is Sterling

In that split second of feeling the contact and going down he's hardly likely to say "Ref! He's trying to pull me back, this should be a penalty!!"Of course he isn't, he draws the refs attention to it by calling out / shouting / crying out, whatever you want to call it.

I wish for BR to have some balls and sub Stevie when he is having those anonymous afternoons. I think Can needs to play in Stevie's place, so the two of them alternate or you push Stevie further up and down like Yaya does for city-defending when under attack, going forward and spraying the passes when they are attacking. And with his legs,he cant do that for 90 minustes, so he needs to be impact player in first half or last 30 minutes

Am I going batty? Did he not grab his arm and tug it back? Nit enough to go down but I saw a yellow card given for something similar an Saturday. The difference was in that occasion the team were on the break. Fir me it is a stone wall penalty but will watch again.

Football has moved on.Strictly defensive fullbacks are becoming a dying breed especially at top clubs.Most forward thinking managers now use fullbacks as a extra attacking option.You need more to your game than just being a committed defender who overlaps.I think the desperation to have another local lad in the starting XI has some overrating his ability and potential.He's a solid fullback to turn to if we have injuries or our starters lack good form.The limitations Flanagan's got attacking wise doesn't fit well in BR's expansive system.

Another top player shows zero ambition but is happy to get transferred to a desperate mid table club.They made Burnley's relegation battlers look like title contenders.Man Utd hardly create chances.Strikers need to be fed by creatives to score.Radamel Falcao will be anerix when the seasons done.What is their transfer strategy? Sign as many big names as possible and neglect areas that need attention.Man U play slow boring football in a system that doesn't work in the PL.Louis Van Gaal is stubborn enough to persist with the formation even if it leaves them hovering around the relegation zone.No need to worry Reds because Falcao's signing won't improve things.Stupid move from United that looks exciting on the surface but the player doesn't fix the real problems they have.If i was Arsene Wenger i'd hijack the deal because he would make Arsenal serious title contenders.

There is no maybe about it, Allen was fouled, to grab a player and to attempt the pull back IS A FOUL. Therefore it was a penalty. If he wants to play on to try and play the advantage after the foul has taken place its his choice. Going to the floor simply says no i don't want the advantage i want the penalty.

If there was no contact so a foul had not been committed and the player dives, then that is cheating.

You could see with Adebayor staying on his feet instead of going down that you don't get the decision despite being fouled unless you signify to the ref you are fouled. This highlights it is a problem with the refereeing that needs to be addressed so then players will not feel they have to go down.

Do you agree that the refereeing needs to be addressed Jaimie or is it all down the players?

It was a clear penalty, he was tampered with in the box, did he go over easy yes. The kick was given, scored and wont be deducted. In summary the season is in the early stages and im sure we'll have some terrible decisions against us as it goes on. Personally I'm not a fan of Joe as a footballer but if he can get guys to pull or push him over in the box then at least he's contributing something.

But in many "tough" games when City want to neutralise the oppposition attack like vs Liverpool (3-2 win at Anfield last season and this past monday), Yaya was played alongside Fernandinho and Fernando as the first defensive layer ahead of the CBs to disturb play. So he may not be good defensively but he is certainly used that way in many instances

Yeah, I agree with you on that but I still feel its will be good to add momentum to the play by subbing him in the 75th minutes onwards to add some new legs. I thought he did well to dribble that many spuds defenders ystrdy bt the shot was ample evidence that his legs had ran out of steam and possibly Ibe, Lambert could have done better with the shot

I love how you come up with these 'Groups' to put people in when they don't agree with your opinion.

Lets get one thing straight, you are the one who is saying this is cheating, however just because you see it as that does not mean it is. So no i am not in cheat-apologist mode as i don't believe they have cheated.

I do love the game, hence why i don't constantly be so negative about it and actually enjoy it, it would be your proclamation that you love the game which i would doubt.

Lets look at this from the attacking players point of view. If defenders didn't shirt pull etc then there would be more goals and the game would be more exciting, therefore if attackers didn't go down when they are being fouled then these acts of cheating of pulling back and shoving in the back etc would increase in number and reduce the amount of goals there would be in the game.

The players bringing these fouls to the referees attention by going down stops this as defenders know they will not get away with it so stop doing it as much. So maybe people going down from the contact are the saviors of the game and defender-foul-apologists like yourself would rather the game degrade into one with much less goals and we would see less of brilliance of some of the best strikers due to them being constantly impeded by the cheating defenders.

Manquillo played 2 games, and already leads the combined tackles + interception numbers. Also played a good part in overlapping and stretching play when we scored the winning goal against Southampton. We have seen very little of him and to already say he doesn't have anything special is plane stupid.

He doesn't need to face the ref to call for a pen. Id he is doing his job properly he wouldn't even know where the ref was. He is highlighting the foul with the call and going down. Gong down was unecesary but it does highlight the foul. I remember Lineka talking about this a little while ago. The tug back is a foul and I would be furious if my player had done it.

In fairness mate he did tug him back. If you look at the size of the lads and have ever played against bigger fellas you will know that that tug is enough to take away that time needed to be able to make the cross he was probably intending to do. It affects your balance too. I am not in anyway saying that is reason enough to go to ground as it wasn't but like you mention yourself when there is not something emphasising it to the Ref he could well miss it. It's crap but until there is a flawless way of reffing it makes more sense for Allen to over emphasise an actual foul that could have led to a goalscoring opportunity rather than the player being able to foul a player in that situation and get away with it. It is the lesser of the two evils.

I agree with the sentiment but if Balotelli price wasnt reduced based on his off field antics he would be the world class talent we aquired. Man u just paid 12 million to loan a 28 year old coming off an ACL injury and will inturn make it even harder for thrm to learn LVG system. We paid 16 million for a 23 year old who we own outright and has proven he can score goals and prrform in the EPL. Falcao complained about the physical play in france compared to Spain. Cant wait until he plays Stoke or West Ham

Allen dived. He went down easily as soon as he felt contact. You and others who perpetuate this view are collectively responsible for the ongoing degradation of fair play in football. You're constantly trying to justify cheating simply because it's an LFC player.

You'll reap what you sow, though. When other players cheat in crucial games and LFC lose the league/a final etc, you won't be so indifferent to cheating.

Yes, because everyone who plays football must have exactly the same view about everything.

Perhaps you should spend less time being patronising, and more time presenting a valid counter argument.

And yes, I've played football for 25+ years, and still do to this day: 11-a side, 5 a side, 8 a side; you name it. I'm the guy in the team who slams his own team-mates for cheating/gamesmanship, but luckily, it's very rare in the team I play for.

Diving is not a 'typical reaction'; only fans who condone cheating think that.

F Borini(23) should only be sold, no loan deal should be accepted.The only way B Rodgers should let F Borini(23) join Inter Milan is for straight swap deal for M Icardi(21) .

And similar with AC Milan, they just got £16M off us for Balotelli(24) so they have money to spend, NO Loan deals with Italian teams. F Borini(23) should only be sold to AC Milan in swap deal for El Shaarwaay(21).

B Rodgers still needs to ship out:

B Jones(32) GK G Johnson(29) RB K Toure(33) CB S Coates(24) CB

L Leiva(27) DM O Assaidi(25) RWF along with F Borini(23)

And B Rodgers needs to bring in these three Class quality players to replace the seven dead wood average players above to fully complete our squad: GK DM RWF

It should be pretty clear on this thread Jamie that your opinion is just that, your opinion - and quite flimsy too. Well done on getting so many people to engage in such a pointless discussion though. Let's just leave it at "it was a soft penalty", deserved, but soft.

Get a grip Jamie! Where in the rules of football does it say that you are allowed to wrap your arm across the chest of a football to impede his momentum! It doesn't! It's a foul not matter how paint the incident! That sort of "tackle" belongs in Rugby NOT football. I am sick and tired of seeing players pull and obstruct players. Phil Dowd knows the rules and he had a good view, and he decided it was a penalty. Stop castigating Liverpool players for going down easy when 99% of other players in the Premiership would have done exactly the same.

Jaimie, while I agree with you that Allen could have stayed on his feet, I also admit that it was a stonewall penalty. This is because in my opinion, Dier makes a foul by attempting to pull back Allen (however minimal the contact, it is still a foul), if he stays on his feet then fine, it is advantage played in favour of Liverpool although no guarantee he manages to find a good cross or even score from this absurd angle. He decides to go for penalty. However the fact remains that Allen took advantage of the attempted foul by Dier. You can say whatever you want but I am happy that he took advantage of it and I certainly do not engage in double standard and I would definitely be angry at the opposition had they done so but at the same time, I would be just as angry at the LFC defender if he had done the same thing as Dier!!! Never make an attempted foul in the penalty box, 90% of the time, the opposition player will fall and cry out for a penalty. In 95% of cases, in all fouls there is always a possibility of the player staying on their feet in terms of pull back or shoulder barge but they fall down to make the referee's mind up in giving the foul. Otherwise, referees would always second guess themselves and try to give advantage where obviously there are none.

Apparently he was willing to go on loan but not on a permanent transfer to Sunderland. It smacks of self interest, he's running down his contract so either liverpool sell him on the cheap next year or he leaves on a free the year after. Either way he get more choices in clubs and bigger wages for himself due to there being no transfer fee.

Interesting debate.But allens response aside, whether a "soft" foul or a "hard" foul.. the point is it was still a foul.I cant comment about the reaction from allen after on which you are basing the evidence of crying out in mock pain. But Allen doesnt strike me as a guy who would do that. to give an example, Suarez probably would have mocked pain and stayed down in "pain" however from playing myself.. I would be the first to shout "hey" "oi" "ref" etc if I felt that contact.I will agree it was a very very soft penalty... but still within the rules of the game. I think aprevious poster mentioned balance and size, which I fully agree with, a small player running through, the slightest contact will put them off balance. Allen did highlight the foul by going down... but Jaime, it was still a foul. Therfore a penalty.

How do you know he 'shouted in pain'? Where is the evidence? That is a massive assumption and based on the evidence in the video, it's more probable that he cried out that he had been fouled. Unless you're a lip-reader, of course... (This is a point I'm making, he may have been crying out in pain, he may have shouted for the penalty, either way, we don't know). As a former ref, albeit a junior ref, from my point of view, the intent was there to foul and therefore, but the letter of the law, if the intent was there to foul, it is a foul. Maybe the reason why it shouldn't have been a penalty is that Eric Dier should have been sent off for his foul on Balotelli, the one that Jim Beglin said that Balotelli was play acting. By the way, I thought Jim Beglin was completely unprofessional in his constantly belittling Balotelli.

Manquillo and Moreno keeping Johnson and Enrique out and that's a good thing. However, I don't get why people are so against Sakho, for his first game with Lovren, he was fine. Ok, he might have got caught out a couple of times, but so did Lovren. Lovren and Sakho are the future defensive pairing and being it was their first competitive outing together, it was a clean sheet and no shots on target against. That's pretty good if you ask me, especially being that's our first clean sheet in 8 competitive matches.

Not replaced 3 times, at all. Aspas our "experienced" back up was replaced by Lambert. Suarez our other first choice striker was replaced by (among others) Balo. The only real like for like replacement is Origi who has been loaned out.If I had to take a guess as why he'd want to stay I'd say these are some potential reasons1) Pride, he wants to prove he can do well at a big club2) Champions League3) Wants to be part of a young improving squad4) Wages

The FIFA rulebooks state that a penalty kick is awarded if a player holds an opponent within his own penalty area. It doesn't state how hard an opponent has to be held to qualify as a foul. It doesn't state that falling down after being held is called cheating either so I have no idea where you're getting your claims from. http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/footballdevelopment/refereeing/81/42/36/log2013en_neutral.pdf

I think that if he shows his willingness to play the way Rodgers wants him to play then hill will begin to see his role increase as the manager will have faith that Markovic will track back and defend which is of huge importance in the 4-4-2 diamond. Early days im sure by mid season he will be entrenched as the LM to go along with Henderson and Gerrard/Can

That's right, you don't generally scream 'penalty' or 'ref' a split second after contact. You do however scream 'hey' a split second after contact. You have your opinion, I have my opinion. My opinion is although he went down easily, that is not cheating. Dier made the intent to pull back, which is a foul.

Here is a question for you. If Dier (or any player) had done the same thing in the middle of the pitch, would that be a foul? Majority of the time, it would be, in fact, in certain circumstances like the player on the receiving end getting ahead of the player and about to make a break, the offending player would get a yellow card. Looking at the evidence, when Allen gets the ball, he knocks it forward, but not too far forward in that he can't get to it. As he knocks it forward and accelerates to get it, Dier then makes contact, by making contact, minimal as it was, it knocks him slightly off balance. Therefore Dier creates an unfair advantage for himself and by the letter of the law is a foul and therefore a penalty.

You are spot on, Dier did not grab Allen's shirt. But that was only because he couldn't get a grab on it, which looks like it was why he then attempted to grab Allen's arm. Allen did not dive. A dive in football is conning a referee that a foul or injury has been committed. You yourself have stated that Dier committed a minor foul. A minor foul is still a foul and so by the definition of what a dive is, then this is not a dive. An exaggeration maybe, but not a dive.

As a football player yourself, if you are accelerating or running at full speed and an opposing player makes the slightest contact with you, does this not cause you to lose your balance, either by going off track or falling over? And if that happens, is it not a foul? It would be given as a freekick if it happened outside of the box, so therefore should be given as a penalty if inside the box.

S Gerrard(34) is experienced and B Rodgers has good backroom staff and alot of the legends who made their name at club are still part of the furniture at the club.

So just keeping clown mistake maker waiting to happen K Toure(33) at club just for experience is comical.

B Rodgers needs three players in : A GK DM RWF

1: Romero(27) Of Sampdoria or T Krul(26) Of Newcastle for £2-£12M to displace S Mignolet(25) as Clubs No 1

2: C Tiote(28) Of Newcastle for £5-£8M An athletic mobile tough tackling enforcer who does his best work without the ball, breaks up play well, stops oppositions attacks, stops oppositions best players dictating the game and wins ball and gets play started for us.

3: B Rodgers and I Ayre should go all out and bring M Reus(25) Of B Dortmund to the club for £22-£30M

And then B Rodgers would have brought in two world class attacking players for combined total of £38-£46M ( Balotelli(24) and M Reus(25) )

Can(21), Lallana(26), Markovic(20) , Origi(19) are all class quality players with the potential to be world class in next few years but none are at the moment.

R Lambert(32) is our plan B in attack Big target man, he is good at what he does but was cheap smart coup.

B Rodgers and I Ayre should go full out and land the three players i mentioned: M Reus(25) from B Dortmund tonight for £22-£30M ,C Tiote(28) and T Krul(26) for a combined total of £20M

As Man United are on the verge of signing Falcao(28) on loan whilst they have other targets they plan to land tonight.

No chance fsg are going to get tiote imo,as far as keepers go i wouldn't mind keeping faith in mignolet for the year and putting a cheeky bid in for lloris if spurs don't make cl, he must be sick of playing us and as they say if you can't beat em' join em, and falcao has panic written all over it seriously they go get him and di Maria and they've blackett and smalling as two of their back three,they worry me very little... Unless they get a top class cb

Well Michael, If we come out of the C League due to the fact we have do not have an athletic mobile tough tackling defensive midfielder in squad.

C Tiote(28) will be awesome addition to our squad, he would bring something to the club we don't have , hard tackling, breaks up play, stops oppositions best players dictating the play and tempo of game and sole aim is to break up play protect back four and keep things moving.

When we were a force in the champions league and winning games, the key players to our great results away to Barcelona 1 2 and Away to Real Madrid 0 1 and away to Inter Milan 0 1 was down to the fact we had one or two mobile tough tackling DM in side ( Hamman, Mascherano and Sissoko)

Without those key players some of our best results in Champions league would never of happened. Hamman helped us win the Champions league in 2005

He came on and stopped Kaka ruining us anymore and S Gerrard was given the license to go forward and do damage, remember that.

No i agree we do need a dm ,Gerrard is good at playing the deep playmaker role but doesn't get around enough and we would benefit from someone like tiote beside or in place of him, just his age sell on value and that

He's got to be the worst signing Brendan has made. I can't believe he wasted £14 million on a player who offers nothing. Brendan only has himself to blame for signing a player who has no pace, skill or anything else to offer, now he can't get rid off him. Aspas was a terrible signing as well but at least he had the self respect to move on. Borini's moves to QPR and Sunderland broke down due to his ridiculous demands, he is clearly more interested in money then playing Football. He'll probably be used in the league cup whilst Balotelli and Sturridge rest.

Exactly knows he is not wanted well after this i hope the club tell he is not being sold to an Italian club that's what he wants.I really hate players that would rather sit on their behinds than play it stinks.